Transmutation
by WyldeHeart
Summary: Ethan manages to save Sarah and his friends from the effects of the Lucifractor, but in the process he ends up sacrificing himself. Benny does a spell to bring him back, seemingly unharmed. Even his soul remains intact. However, not all is as it seems, and the three friends are about to find out exactly what happens when you mess with the balance of life and death.
1. Chapter 1: Sacrifices

Sarah watched in horror as Ethan awkwardly tackled Stern, sending them both sprawling across the floor, the Lucifractor gave out a last blast of light before fading to darkness. The blast chilled her to her very core, leaving her weak and aching, but she was still very much alive. Benny, Sarah, and Jesse all observed in surprise as the small orb shattered into millions of pieces, taking the threat of their species with it. Stern appeared to vaporize into thin air along with the Lucifractor, hopefully for good. They sat in silence for a few moments, letting the shock of what just happen settle in. The one thing Sarah was sure of was: _Ethan had just saved her life_.

"Well, that was interesting." Jesse's sarcastic tone broke the silence. His tone was calm and relaxed, but his shoulders were tensed and his eyes still flickered with remnants of fear. Sarah bit back a rude remark, trying to remind herself that he _had_ helped them. Even if he was a no good, back-stabbing jerk with no regard for human life. And the reason she was a vampire in the first place. She would _never_ forgive him for that.

"Did Ethan just..." Benny trailed off, obviously the most scarred out of all of them. At the mention of Ethan her gaze shot towards the space where he had tackled Stern. It hadn't exactly been graceful, knowing Ethan wasn't the most athletic-if not the least-out of all of them. But he had saved them none the less. When her eyes finally rested on Ethan, a wave of anxiety plunged into her, and within seconds she was speeding over to Ethan's side.

He wasn't moving.

Panicking, she shakily placed two fingers on his neck and felt for a pulse. She tried hard to ignore the roaring hunger for his blood as she waited for the steady _thump_ of his beating heart. Benny watched with confusion and concern, not quite aware of the current situation. Jesse on the other hand, observed with subtle interest, already knowing what Sarah would discover. Her breath hitched as she continued to wait for a heartbeat. And wait. And wait...

But it ever came.

"Sarah, what is it?" Benny's voice wavered a bit as he spoke, worry for his best friend's well-being evident in his tone. Sarah couldn't bring herself to speak the words that repeated themselves in her mind over and over. Words that she never wanted to say, nor admit to herself or Benny. Turns out she didn't have to.

"He's dead. How unfortunate." Jesse spoke with partially hidden sadistic glee, and anger bubbled in Sarah's stomach. Before she could scream at him, he was up on his feet and at the door. "Don't call me again. I won't answer." he didn't even so much as wave before he disappeared through the doorway and back to wherever it is he came from. Sarah secretly hoped that he had gotten staked as soon as he walked out the door, but the odds of that happening were unfortunately quite slim.

Sarah was so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't notice Benny make his way over to his friends body. It was only when she heard his sharp gasp and slight whimper that she was pulled back to reality, only to be met with Benny's crushed expression. She wasn't exactly sure how long they had known each other, but based on how they spoke-how they _had_ spoken-she could guess they had known each other for a good couple of years. They sat there for what felt like years, staring at Ethan's lifeless form, waiting for some sign of life. Movement beneath his eyelids, the rise and fall of his chest, _something_.

Finally, Benny moved. He stood up and began searching around the room for something, Sarah watching in silent confusion and empathy. However crushed she felt about this, Benny felt ten times worse. He continued to pace around the room before finally locating the object he'd been looking for: an old, worn, leather spell book. Scooping the book off the floor, he began frantically flipping through pages, muttering the same word under his breath over and over, his green eyes shiny and wet with the threat of oncoming tears.

"Benny... what are you doing?" Sarah's voice was filled with nothing but sorrow and concern, and somehow this seemed to upset Benny even more. His hands shakily tore through the brittle paper, and she realized that he had been whispering the word "no" to himself over and over, obviously not finding what he was looking for. "Benny..." she called a little louder, her own eyes were beginning to water.

"What?!" he snapped rather harshly, but his voice cracked as he spoke. She flinched, and his eyes widened slightly as he realized how he'd been acting. Taking a deep breath, he glanced up from the pages of the book and looked straight at Sarah. "I'm not letting him just die like this."

"Benny, there's nothing you can do."

"I can do a spell!" his voice cracked once more as he continued to scour the Latin-filled pages with broken eyes.

"You can't bring someone back to life, remember last time-"

"There has to be something!" Benny was nearly screaming at this point, a faint echo resounded in the room, magnifying his shattered tone. Sarah watched helplessly, silently praying that this was all just a bad dream and she'd wake up any second in her bed. But she wasn't sleeping, this was real. She had lived, but her friend had died, and she couldn't help but feel like it was all her fault.

"I found something!" Benny burst out, filled with hope. Sarah's head snapped up and stared at him incredulously, thinking that he was mistaken. He turned the book around with his hands still shaking slightly, exposing the page he had found, the words _Dare Vitae_ was scrawled across the top in large, spidery handwriting. A long string of Latin rested underneath, which she assumed to be a spell. Her eyes met his, filled with doubt, and his gaze saddened slightly upon seeing her disbelief.

"What does it mean?" she asked softly.

" _Dare Vitae_? It means "to give life". This could save him!" a familiarly optimistic smile broke out on his lips, but this did nothing to comfort her.

"Benny, it won't bring back his soul. Remember-"

"It does," he pointed to a small note scribbled to the side of the incantation, written in the same spidery Latin. "See? It says "mind, body, and soul". It brings him back, _all_ of him back."

Sarah glanced towards Ethan's lifeless body, a pang of sorrow sweeping through her body at the sight of his pale skin. She didn't need to touch it to know that it was freezing cold. Then she looked at Benny. His green eyes were swelling with countless emotions, hope mixed with defeat, anger mixed with fear, and above all, the heart-wrenching pain of losing his best friend.

"We have to try Sarah," his stare was pleading, begging her to say yes. She knew it was wrong, they had learned a long time ago that it was dangerous to mess with life and death, but this was different. It wasn't some random girl's dog, it was a _person_. And not just any person, Ethan. He may have been awkward and geeky, but he had helped her and so many other people, with no real reason to do so. Sure sometimes he was the cause of the problem, but that didn't really matter. Going over all of this in her mind, all of her memories and recollections, she couldn't let those be his last years. She took a deep breath, taking in oxygen and collecting her thoughts. _We have to try..._

"Okay Benny." she feigned a smile, causing Benny's own to widen. It took a lot of preparation, mostly Benny making sure that he knew exactly how to pronounce every syllable of the Latin. Over the past year he had learned quite a bit, but he was by no means fluent. The amount of times he'd messed up a spell just because he said it wrong was overwhelming, and worry began to gnaw at Sarah's already queasy stomach. They may only have one shot at this. She took another deep breath.

"I think I'm ready." Benny finally looked up from the book, enthusiasm and hope swelled in his dark green eyes as he spread out the book in front of him, exposing the spell. Sarah kept trying to tell herself that it would be okay, that Ethan would come back and everything would return to normal, but she couldn't escape the swarms of doubt that had settled over her mind. It didn't help that Benny seemed to be hiding something, holding back some sort of information. She just hoped it wasn't important, and he was just refraining from making some dumb comment.

"Let's do this." at Sarah's firm announcement, Benny began to slowly chant the Latin written on the pages before him. Spending time on every word and slowly drawing it out in his efforts for perfection. After a few times of repeating the spell, he began to speed up, slowing increasing in speed and volume until he was practically yelling. The entire time her eyes remained glued on Ethan, who's condition had yet to change.

Then it happened. It wasn't dramatic by any means, but to her it was the most amazing thing in the world. A small laugh of relief escaped her lips as she observed the movement of Ethan's chest, slowly taking in oxygen. It was slow and a bit labored, but he was breathing. They had done it. He was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay.

Ethan didn't really think about it, he just knew that he couldn't let Sarah die. Not like this. His mind was scrambled and still spinning from the shock of entering Stern's mind, but he managed to push himself forward and knock Stern over. The world seemed to travel in slow motion, his feet clumsily pushed off the ground and towards the tall man before him, power radiating from the small orb situated beneath his wrinkled hands. Pushing all of his weight against him, the two were sent tumbling to the hard ground below, seconds seemed to last for hours. Right before they hit the ground, the two made eye contact. Ethan's eyes scared but full of determination, and Stern's pure, hot rage. He had been counting on fear to hold them back, an easy mistake.

Then he vanished. Disappeared. There one second and gone the next, completely vaporizing into thin air. A wave of pain and fire engulfed Ethan milliseconds before he crashed into the cold, hard floor. And then: silence.

He felt numb, emotionless, and completely at peace. At first he concluded that he was blind, only to realize that he was just entirely surrounded by darkness, somehow floating in a vast, empty space. Despite this, he had never felt more relaxed in his life. Then, images began to open in his mind, a film reel of memories dating from the day he was born to - as he now understood it to be - the day he died. Each picture lasted for less than a tenth of millisecond, but it didn't matter. Nothing seemed to matter.

Thoughts pummeled his brain, worries, fears, frustrations. Among the bad there was also so much happiness, recollections of joy and surprise, as well as excitement. Every memory a reminder of who he was and what he had done. What he would never do again.

But something changed.

All of a sudden he was surrounded by red flames, engulfing every fiber of his being and wreaking unimaginable pain and agony. Each vein in his body felt as if it were being pulled and twisted, every bone breaking and mending itself over and over. A cold feeling of hopelessness and darkness settled over his brain, as all of his emotions began to return to him. Each one inducing another fit of excruciating torture. A hurricane of fear, anger, and depression began to swirl in the pit of his subconscious, morphing and warping into emotions so terrible he'd never even thought them possible. He opened his mouth to shout out, call for help, but it was soundless.

That was the worst part. Among all of the chaos, all of the torment, it was completely and utterly silent. Not one sound echoed in the void, just horrifying silence. It was at that moment that Ethan realized he hadn't been breathing, there had not been any need to. But now he found him self hungrily gulping up tainted air, the smell of smoke and fire burned his nostrils. Slowly, the flames began to wrap around him, each tendril of red like a long and fiery tentacle. The fire charred his eyes and vaporized his insides, contorting and forming as it seeped through his skin and into his very core. The pain he had previously been experiencing was a mere fly on the wall in comparison to the monstrous bought of misery and torment that flowed through him in that moment. Tears leaked down his cheeks, red and acidic like the roaring crimson inferno that had enveloped him.

How long he remained like that, agonizing and plagued with the painful burden of the fire, he wasn't sure. It may have been mere seconds, or hundreds of years, but for that period of time, all he knew was the fire. There was only the flames. Red, demonic, raging flames.

And then, the most beautiful and miraculous thing happened. He opened his eyes.

Light flooded his irises and he welcomed them with overwhelming relief. Pain still flowed through his body, but it was so much less than what he had experienced during the fire that he barely even noticed it at first. As his eyes began to focus and the fog of unconsciousness receded, his surroundings began to take shape. At the moment he was staring up at a plain white ceiling, some of the paint had started to chip away and reveal the plaster underneath. The warm, bright sunlight was coming through a large white window to his right, surrounded in a white frame and - from his current position - a with view of blue, cloudless sky.

But the gentle glow soon became almost too bright, and his eyes hurt from just looking at it, causing him to immediately shut them again and letting himself once again to be flooded in darkness. Groaning, he turned on his side and allowed his back to face the sun. A sharp pain shot up his spine and he held back a whimper, desperately trying to remember where he was and how he'd got there. Memories and recollections of the experience with Stern flooded into his mind and images clouded his vision, but one realization sent a swarm of fear around his heart. He had _died_. He remembered dying, floating in nothingness, surrounded by peace and tranquility. And he could remember the fire, hot and freezing at the same time, the color of blood, swallowing him whole and ripping his body apart. Yet here he was, lying in what he now recognized to be Benny's guest bedroom, completely alive.

Swallowing his trepidation, he agonizingly pulled himself to his feet and settled on the soft carpet below. Despite the fading burn of the fire and the fact that he had just died and come back to life, he felt surprisingly energized. It was almost disturbing.

Then, as if someone had flipped a switch in his brain, everything snapped into focus. In milliseconds he was suddenly being attacked by all sorts of sights and sounds, and he staggered slightly as his skull pounded from his senses being overwhelmed. It felt as if every single one of his senses had been turned up to 100, magnifying the world around him in overpowering detail. His eyes caught every single crack and chip in the walls, the painted colors now more vibrant than ever before. Every creaking pipe and structural strain of the house echoed in his ears, and the light suddenly became even more bright than before, if that was possible.

Silently, he padded towards the door and cracked it open, wincing at the booming _squeak_ of it's rusted hinges. The hallway was noticeably darker, and his tension lessened slightly. He could hear someone moving around downstairs in the kitchen, their sharp breaths and beating heart vibrated in his ears and he could only assume it was Benny, as the movements were much too sharp to be his grandmother's. His head continued to throb intensely and he had to keep reminding himself to keep quiet, that it was nothing compared to what he had experienced in his dream. That thought sent a series of chills down his spine. Had that been real? Or was that just some deranged fantasy of his subconscious mind? It had seemed so real, and he could still feel the fire in his veins, turning his blood to crimson lava.

His own sporadic heartbeat resounded in his spinning mind, and he quickly made his way down the shadowed hallway and ducked into what he knew to be the upstairs bathroom. What he saw in the mirror increased his anxiety in tenfold.

Long, black tendrils snaked their way down his pale arms and stained his skin like supernatural tattoos. Ethan was pretty sure he had _not_ gotten tattoos, nor had he ever planned to. In fact he was positive if his mother saw this then he would fall victim to a series of screams louder than a siren. What disturbed him the most was the shape of the marks, which reminded him of the curling flames of a fire, wrapping themselves around his arms and leaving scorching black in their paths. A deep chill rapped down his already shaking spine, and his grip on the counter increased as he leaned on it heavily for support. The room seemed to spin and warp as he absorbed exactly what he was looking at. Visions of demonic red flames projected themselves in the back of his mind, identical to the black tentacles that now covered his arms.

There were other differences, subtle and less noticeable. He was paler, which only magnified the dark, smoky designs printed on his skin. Ethan stood there for what felt like hours, studying himself in the mirror. His eyes glued on his reflection as he attempted to comprehend what he was seeing. Wave after wave of panic bounced around in his stomach as his eyes focused on the expression of his doppelganger. The figure looking back at him was grinning wildly, almost insanely, to the point where Ethan felt almost sick.

"Ethan?" a familiar voice sounded from the doorway, and his eyes flickered away from his smirking twin and towards the brunette teenage boy standing just a few feet away. It was Benny, decked out in a green striped shirt and loose jeans. His face was a mixture of joy and shock, and a faint smile worked its way onto Ethan's lips. For some reason it felt as if he hadn't seen his best friend in years, the timeless moments spent in the inferno of red still remained in the back of his mind, but now his attention was elsewhere.

A grin cracked Benny's awed expression as he realized his friend had finally woken. Ethan wondered how long he had been asleep like that, and what exactly Benny had done to bring him back. Because he _was_ dead. He knew it. Just like he knew he had two eyes and a nose. It was just a fact. But somehow, some way, he was back. The real question was, at what cost?

It was during this period of puzzlement that Benny noticed the marks.


	2. Chapter 2: Awake

Used textbooks and crumpled papers littered the mahogany desk, where Sarah sat scribbling frantically on what would now be the third page of her history essay. These days she rarely found time to do schoolwork, with all the chaos that went on in her life it was hard to set aside an hour or two to so much as a page of algebra. Her grades had been on the borders of failing and passing for months now, and even though Erica constantly reminded her that it didn't matter - because according to her vampires didn't _need_ to worry about mundane things like high school - she refused to just give up on her life because of some curse.

Ever since the Lucifractor Incident three days ago - where the name came from she had no idea - it had been surprisingly tranquil. No supernatural afflictions threatened their lives, and for the most part everything had returned to normal. Well, as normal as you can get in a town like Whitechapel. The news had made up some weird story to explain the incident, claiming it was some sort of small earthquake, and the citizens of Whitechapel remained completely ignorant of the creatures that lurked in the shadows of their town. The only difference between their life before and their life now was: Ethan wasn't there to see it.

I mean, it made sense, when you die and come back to life you're going to be a bit exhausted. But it had been _three days_ and Ethan hadn't so much as moved a finger. After Benny had completed the spell, they had sat there waiting for hours hoping that he would wake up. Finally they ended up bringing him back to Benny's grandmother's house, who was away at some sort of arts and crafts fair. Despite herself she couldn't stop worrying that the spell had failed, and any moment she would get a phone call that Ethan was dead.

As if it were reading her mind, the silver cellphone sitting on a pile of math papers began to buzz sporadically. A lump formed in her throat as she grasped the miniature computer and read the screen, her stomach doing flips as she read Benny's name. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the "talk" button and held the phone up to her ear, preparing for the worst. "Sarah! Thank god, I was worried you wouldn't pick up!" Benny's voice ripped through the speakers and pounded against her ears, causing her too move the cell away from her head.

"What happened?" she final managed to ask, crossing her fingers that it wasn't the same as her paranoia.

"Ethan woke up!" hope exploded in her chest as she heard those words, all anxiety dissipating as she processed what he'd just said.

"Seriously! Is he okay?" she had already begun to get out of her chair, no longer able to remain sitting. Concern mixed with joy as emotions tumbled around sending her nerves in a frenzy.

"Well..." he trailed off, as if trying to make the situation even more dramatic.

"Well?" Sarah's shoulder's tensed.

"I think he got, like, death tattoos or something." Benny awkwardly announced, knowing that what he was saying made absolutely no sense.

"Death tattoos?" she inquired, at this point in time she was kind of used to Benny not making any sense. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

"When he woke up he had these... marks on his arms. But, listen..."

"What do you mean by marks?" she asked again, questioning herself on why she wasn't just hanging up and driving over there right now.

"They're like, black... swirls. But there's something else!" Benny anxiously changed the subject.

"What else is wrong?" she questioned irritatingly.

"I think he remembers."

"Remembers? You mean dying?" her voice had become less annoyed and more concerned.

"No." he paused and she could hear him take in a deep breath. When he spoke again his voice was a low whisper. "Being dead." 

Sarah wasn't exactly sure what she expected Ethan to look like, after all he had been completely unresponsive for over three days. Bringing her knuckles down on the wooden front door, she impatiently waited for a response. If it weren't for her 'curse' she would've simply barged through the front doors, but unfortunately as a vampire she had to gain permission before entering a house, something she would never understand. The sound of broken scuffling followed by a loud _thump_ and a series of muttered curse words - she assumed Benny had tripped on something - emanated from the other side of the wood before it creaked open, revealing a happy but oddly uneasy brunette boy. His hair was slightly messy since she had last seen him the other day, dark circles lay under his dark green eyes, but his expression revealed his triumph at the return of his best friend.

"What brings you here on this fine day, my fanged friend?" Benny was smiling from ear to ear, and Sarah resisted the urge slap him for his idiotic comment.

"Let me in." she sighed, not even bothering to hide her vexation.

"Fine. Since you asked so nicely." he swung the door open for her, and waltzed away towards the dining room where they usually met. It was situated right next to the kitchen so Benny had easy access to any snacks they may need. Relief flooded her system as she observed the person sitting at the end of the table, stirring around a bowl of tomato soup with a bored expression. When she stepped into the doorway his dark brown eyes flicked up to meet hers, and a smile broke out on each of their faces, Sarah's wider than his. Ethan immediately stopped playing with the silverware and Sarah began to take note of his current condition.

He looked relatively healthy and vital, oddly enough, although his skin was eerily pale and he had lost some weight while he'd been... asleep. Currently he was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans, the same outfit he'd been wearing on the day of the incident, along with a black, thin hoodie. However, there was a sort of... unnatural gleam in his eyes, as if a part of him was still clinging on to death. She tried to suppress a shiver and moved to seat herself across the table from him. Benny had already taken up residence in a chair halfway across the table, the only sound echoing in the house now was the steady tapping of his sneakers on the polished wood flooring. An awkward silence settled over the three of them as they observed one another in quiet uncertainty.

"So..." Benny shattered the hushed tranquility in an uncomfortable fashion, shifting in his chair. "Um, how was death?"

"Benny!" Sarah glared at Benny, shocked at his blunt and thoughtless outburst. Ethan remained silent, his eyes dazed for a moment as if remembering some event, before snapping back to reality. Sarah searched for a way to change the subject, and came across the fact that Ethan hadn't eaten any of the soup sitting in front of him. The last time he'd eaten had been just before they'd confronted Stern, over 72 hours ago. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really." Ethan murmured quietly, his eyes still downcast and gloomy. Concern bubbled inside of Sarah, accompanied by hoards of worry and anxiety. Something was wrong.

"Hey, wait, show her the tattoos!" Benny leaned forward on the table eagerly, seemingly oblivious to his friends peculiar behavior. Sarah raised her eyebrows at his comment, and Ethan gave out a long sigh.

"I don't think they're tattoos, Benny." he spoke slowly as his fingers pulled back cuffs of his hoodie, unearthing his ghostly white arms and the odd black shapes that decorated them. Sarah's eyes widened slightly - admittedly she hadn't really thought Benny was serious about his arms being covered in markings - and a series of questions began to brew in her mind. Benny was already one step ahead.

"Then what are they?" he crossed his arms across his chest, more in puzzlement than frustration. She was pretty sure he couldn't be angry right now even if he tried. He just got his best friend back, after all.

"I think they're... burns." Ethan choked on his words as he gaped at the thick black swirls, which now that he mentioned it sort of resembled the flames of a fire. Another chill threatened to sweep down her spine as she noted the hidden terror that seemed to conceal itself in his gaze, and the same sort of vacant look seemed to take hold of him for a few seconds, a look of remembrance, followed by another wave of masked horror. Benny still seemed completely ignorant of this, but Sarah couldn't help but wonder what exactly that spell had done to Ethan, aside from giving him a second chance at life.

"How would you get burns? You were lying in a bed for three days. Plus, I'm positive those weren't there a couple hours ago." he pushed the soup closer to Ethan in a gesture that he needed to eat it, but Ethan just pulled down his sleeve and pretended not to notice.

"When I was... asleep, I remember being on fire. It was... I felt like it was going into me." he noticed their perplexed expressions and attempted to cover it up, "B-but it was probably just a dream!" his arms were shaking slightly, and considering he was wearing a hoodie in room temperature she could only assume it wasn't caused by being cold. Every muscle and nerve in his body was tense, betraying the fact that he wasn't telling the whole story. However, Sarah wasn't sure if it was something he wanted to repeat. She couldn't shake the feeling that they had done something awful, even though they had managed to bring him back. A chilling thought erupted in her brain, but she quickly dismissed it.

A soft vibration accompanied by a ringtone of one of her favorite songs seeped through the leather material of her bag and alerted her that she was once again receiving a phone call. It was then that she realized she had forgotten to inform her parents of where she headed, no doubt they were worried.

Sometimes she wished she could just tell them everything, all of the things she had gone through and what she had become, but whenever she tried to form the words her tongue turned to putty and her thoughts were washed away. It was mainly the irrational fear that, if she were to tell them, they would no longer love her. It was an almost childish fret to have, but it was one that refused to part ways. Until it did she just wasn't sure she could take that step.

Just as she began to reach her hand for the opening of her leather backpack, she noticed something odd in the corner of her eye. Ethan's hands were shakily held over his ears, as if blocking out a loud and disturbing noise. The thing that bothered her was, besides the ring of her cellphone, the house was almost totally silent, save the occasional creak or groan of a settling house. But her phone was on the lowest possible volume. This time around Benny did notice his odd behavior, and the two exchanged perturbed glances.

"Um, is that like, loud to you or something?" Benny spoke gingerly, his voice tender like when one were speaking to a scared, small child. At this remark a sort of recognition seemed to flash in Ethan's eyes, before he tenderly removed his hands and stuffed them into the silky pockets of his dark hoodie. Every time the phone vibrated he flinched slightly - to him it was not a gentle buzz but rather what seemed a thunderous boom - and it took Sarah a few moments to continue the action of removing her buzzing, metallic cellphone. A quick flash of the screen revealed that the caller was, in fact, her mother.

"Are you going to answer it?" Ethan stammered in an almost rude tone, obviously uncomfortable. Sarah gave him another worried glance before pressing the 'cancel' button and nestling the mini computer back in its leather hovel. All the while keeping an eye on Ethan, who's shoulders had begun to relax, his eyes darting around nervously as he tried to avoid eye contact.

"Well that was... weird." Benny seemed to be the only person daring enough to speak what was on all of their minds. Ethan remained quite, now shakily staring at his hands like the most fascinating thing in the world. Again, Sarah was struck with the feeling that his actions were not right, even for his condition. Then there was the fire he had described earlier. The way he had described the flames and the horror with which he spoke his words made Sarah worry that he had gone through something awful during his comatose state. Even more terrifying was the fact that strange markings had just suddenly materialized on his skin, which had grown exceedingly pale over the past few days.

"How about we watch a movie? I have to call my mom really quick and tell her I wasn't kidnapped," she quipped and paused shortly for a response, but neither of the two boys so much as snickered, "but then we should be able to do something. I still haven't gotten any news from Erica and Rory."

"Wait, what happened to Erica and Rory?" Ethan's curiosity was beginning to return to his tone as he questioned about the two reckless vampires.

"We're not sure. After the whole incident with Stern and the Lucifractor, all of the vampires in Whitechapel seemed to have disappeared. Even the council, which I'm kind of glad about. I think they ran away after finding out about what the Lucifractor could do. I'm waiting on a text or something from Erica, but so far no luck." sighing, she pushed back the chair and got onto her feet, brushing off stray crumbs that had fallen onto her lap from the messy table. "I'll be right back, you guys can find a movie and stuff."

As she exited the room she heard Benny push up his chair and head towards the kitchen for "corn popping time", which gained a slight chuckle from Ethan. A trickle of hope streamed into her mind and once again attempted to assure her that everything would be okay. Of course Ethan was tense, he had just _died_. She shouldn't be so quick to judge him.

It had taken a bit of convincing on her part before her mother finally allowed her stay, much to Sarah's relief. Usually she at least had the mind to notify her mom before she left the house. she had just been so caught up with everything she had forgotten. With a quick exchange of loving farewells, she was able to hang up and place her cell back inside the pocket of her bag.

Upon reentering the living room she found Ethan and Benny already situated on the couch, a large bowl of greasy popcorn perched on the stained wooden coffee table. It was a bit odd, to say the least. They were great friends, definitely, but the normally the three didn't just hang out alone. Usually Rory or Erica were there, or at least Ethan's little sister Jane. Today, however, definitely seemed like an exception. Besides, she had been meaning to watch that one new horror movie and now seemed as good as time as ever.

Ethan was flicking through channels with the gray remote clasped in his hands. Thankfully his skin seemed to have gained some of its original color, and his hands were definitely shaking less than before. Maybe she had been overreacting.

"So did you guys pick a movie, or can I make a suggestion?" The two boy's eyes flicked over towards her almost unanimously.

Benny's grinned as he popped another piece of buttered popcorn into his mouth, a large dent already starting to form in the mound. "Actually, I have no idea. Just please don't say Dusk."

"As if. I was thinking that new horror movie that came out." Sarah sat herself down in a comfy blue armchair facing from the left of the television.

"Sounds good to me." Benny turned to look at his friend. "Ethan?"

"Sure."

Ethan tried not to dwell on the fact that, despite her being outside on the porch with the door closed tight, he could hear every word exchanged between Sarah and her mother on her cellphone.

He tried to ignore the fact that he hadn't eaten in days, but he just couldn't bring himself to choke down a single spoonful of soup.

Most importantly, he tried to distract himself from the agonizing headache that was beginning to develop beneath his skull, ripping away at his brain and sending wave after wave of sharp knives digging into his mind and lighting his nerves on fire.

But he was failing.

And no matter how hard he attempted to focus on the cheesy horror movie on the T.V. in front of him, the screen seemed just a little too bright, and the colors a mite too vivid. It didn't help that Benny had the speakers turned up near max volume, but Ethan couldn't bring himself to ask him to turn it down. Not after the incident with Sarah's phone.

 _No,_ he tried to tell himself, _you're just confused from being out of it for so long. All you need is a good night's sleep and you'll be back to your old self. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is-_

"Ethan?" Sarah's solicitous voice broke through his thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

It occurred to him that he must have been zoning out again. He really needed to stop doing that. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache."

"Oh, you want me to get some Advil or something?" she asked.

"No, it's fine." At this point another question worked its way into his mind. "Hey, where do my parents think I am? They're probably worried sick."

"Already ten steps ahead of you my friend, they think we are having a sleepover." Benny's attention slipped away from the television, where a girl was checking the hallway for 'strange noises'. Honestly, Ethan was pretty sure he didn't even need to watch the move to know what was going to happen.

"For three days?" Ethan's voice cracked.

The corner of Benny's mouth twitched into an nervous grin. "Yeah, well... I might have added a little magic in there too. Don't worry about it."

"I am definitely worrying about it. They better not be turning into cats when I get home." Ethan gave a small smile, and Benny seemed to buy it. What he didn't know was that with every word Ethan spoke, the headache was increasing in tenfold. He needed to sleep.

"You guys are hilarious." Sarah said exasperatingly, although she was obviously just as happy for the sense of normalcy that had started to return to their little group after being quiet for so long.

"Oh, crap! I'm out of popcorn." Benny moaned, his hands grasping at an empty bowl.

Ethan jumped to his feet, eager for some sort of distraction. "I'll get it."

"Make sure to-" Benny started to speak but stopped as soon as he noticed the pained expression that had been to work it's way across Ethan's face, his pupils blown up to the size of balloons. "E?"

"I-" As soon as he opened his mouth he regretted it; a new swarm of pain hacking away at the strings of his mind, causing him to double over in pain. Benny dropped the plastic bowl and rushed to his friends side, his hands grabbing his shoulders to keep him from toppling to the floor. It was possible the brunette started yelling something at Sarah, but a sharp, low buzzing had begun to fill his ears and drown out all other sounds like a hoard of a million deadly wasps. Another crisp, tormentous flower of agony bloomed behind his forehead, causing him to cry out helplessly.

Desperately he tried to defend himself against the shadows that had begun to form beneath his eyelids, fire dancing through his veins to the awful buzzing beneath his skull. Heat blossomed in his blood stream and rammed against his nerves, filling his mind with pools of darkness. Every passing second seemed to increase his internal temperature by a hundred degrees, but he kept fighting for consciousness, battling the inferno raging in his head.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. Hands were grabbing at his clothes and he could faintly hear the voices of his friends, before they too were silenced. Inky tendrils began to wrap themselves around him, dragging him back to the one place he never wanted to see again. Back to the pyre of horrid scarlet flames he had been straining so hard to forget and push to the back of his mind.

Back to Hell.


End file.
